05 November 2007

Pakistan (continued)

The radio reported this morning that General Musharraf is leaving Pakistan's newspapers alone while cracking down on television to enforce his emergency rule. His policy appears to be based on a cynical calculation that most Pakistani people are illiterate and therefore won't pay attention to the press. He might think differently if people started taking their newspapers to the masses and reading them aloud, but maybe the general knows something about class relationships in his country that I don't.

Again, this is an area where the Bush Administration might offer Musharraf some advice. He has the right idea about newspapers, they might tell him, but otherwise his approach is crude. He doesn't censor newspapers because his people don't read. That's fine. In America, the Bushies could argue, we don't censor any media -- we're not worried about what the media say because our people don't think.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

mullah cimoc say benjamin frankling so ashame now if see ameriki people not to rise up and help him brother in pakistan.

somewhere ameriki lose way, now not to support him freedom fighter. now just for the kill and him ameriki not to care. this because usa media keep ameriki so stupid with war news blockade.


also, usa woman now the slut take the LBT (low back tattoo). this the punish.

Anonymous said...

Further evidence that religion breeds ignorance.

Samuel Wilson said...

Readers may find it instructive to google the name "Mullah Cimoc." I did this and I found that he posted the exact same comment to someone else's blog. Overall there were more than 15,000 references to this intrepid writer, many of which are similar in tone to Cryhmethinc's response. Perhaps I should feel flattered to be noticed by so notorious a personality, authentic or not.